Good, smart Berks Christian advances, claims PIAA berth

Berks Christian's Lauren Heliger, who scored a game-high 24 points, goes up for a shot during the Lions' win over Lancaster Christian.

At the end of the first quarter, Berks Christian coach Troy Wible looked at his team sitting directly in front of him, leaned over and in a rather calm tone said, “We are playing good, smart basketball.”

About an hour later, when certain victory was about a minute away, Wible looked at his team and said in the same tone, “I tell you what, girls, if we give up this lead it will go down as one the best comebacks ever.”

It was a rather memorable line in what was a memorable day for the top-seeded Lions, who got a game-high 24 points from junior Lauren Heliger in blowing out No. 8 Lancaster Christian 58-33 in the District 3-A quarterfinals Saturday at West Lawn.

The Lions will face Lebanon Catholic in the semifinals Tuesday night at 7:30 at Lower Dauphin.

It was just the second district win in school history for the Lions, who also qualified for the PIAA_Tournament for the first time.

“The girls have worked hard and are disciplined, and it is just an awesome feeling,” Wible said. “I am really glad for them.”

“We have only 21 girls in our high school, so it is a big thing for us to make states,” said Heliger, who finished 13-of-15 from the foul line. “We are all pretty much like family.

“Some people might have speculated about us because we are a small school. Some might have said why the heck are we even No. 1. We came out and showed them.”

What the Lions (20-3) showed Saturday is they have a wonderful work ethic, especially on defense. Their help defense was terrific, and they won many battles for loose balls.

On offense Heliger is quite a weapon. She nailed a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to give Berks Christian am 11-4 lead after a quarter. She scored seven points in the second quarter to help the Lions take a 23-11 halftime lead.

The Lions closed the third quarter with a 9-0 run to take a commanding 39-17 lead.

Alice Wible finished with 13 points for Berks Christian.

Lancaster Christian had 30 turnovers, many forced but plenty unforced.

“We were very disciplined on defense,” Troy Wible said. “We didn’t stray from our strategy, and we stayed mentally strong.”